Modelagem e simulação de coluna de destilação reativa

Abstract

Chemical Engineering always seeks to increase quality in line with the reduction of production costs, with which methods such as Reactive Distillation, which has been adopted by industries, have emerged. This type of operation, known as process intensification, is gaining relevance by uniting at least two pieces of equipment in one and also allowing to obtain even greater conversions. Unlike the common process that has a reactor and a distillation column, this new process has only the distillation column, because the reaction occurs in the column itself, which makes the process more complex to be studied and simulated, but simplifies the process. operation. The present work aimed to model a reactive distillation column in steady state for the production of methyl acetate. The modeling was performed using the Coco Simulator program. The effects of parameters such as pressure, feed temperatures, reflux ratio and flow rate of base product on the conversion were verified. With the necessary modifications and studies, it was verified that it is possible to reach a purity of 99.9996% of the methyl acetate at the top, however this is a result that in practice is difficult to apply due to difficulties with columns with a high reflux rate.